Modification of the action of, and the electron and ion paths in, a mercury arc discharge tube



Aug. 15, 1961 ANG A. v 2,996,645 MODIFICATION OF THE ACTION OF, AND THEELECTRON I ION PATHS IN, A MERCURY ARC DISCHARGE TUBE Filed July 2, 1958AND CONTROL CONT- ROL '9 32 Alfred Vang BY FIG-.5 7/

ATTORNEY.

MODIFICATION OF THE ACTION OF, AND THE ELECTRON AND ION PATHS IN, AMERCURY AZRC DISCHARGE TUBE Alfred Vang, Box 864, Rancho Santa Fe,Calif., assiguor of one-third to himself, as trustee, and one-third toAnna Vang Filed July 2, 1958, Ser. No. 746,151

. 2 Claims. (Cl. 315267) This invention relates to the modification ofthe action of, "and the electron and ion paths in, a mercury aredischarge tube.

More particularly, the invention relates to, and has for its generalobject, the production of bursts or magna quanta of energy as describedin my British Patent No. 785,448.

In many uses of high voltages and large current of .short durationresort is made to condenser discharge. .While condenser discharge isquite satisfactory when accomplished'by a magnetic field in the tube.

A further object is to supply large amounts of energy toatomically'fusionable material so as to initiate fusion.

In the accompanying drawingshowing, by way of exare increased ordiminished. This variation of path is I ample twoof many possibleembodiments of theinven- I tion,

FIGURE 1 shows a circuit for producing magn-a quanta.

FIGURE 2 is a schematic representation of a use of the circuit forinitiating nuclear fusion.

FIGURE 3 shows tubes in opposition for producing substantially squarewave current.

FIGURE 4 shows the wave pattern of square-wave current.

FIGURE 5 shows the Wave form of the output of the circuit of FIGURE 1,and

FIGURE 6 shows a modified form of a tube for use in the circuit ofFIGURE 1.

The invention can be understood more easily by first considering certainof the elements in conventional combination, such as a source of powerS, at 1,000 volts up, connected through a mercury arc tube T to a loadsuch as a transformer 10, the connection being made through the primarywinding 11. The tube comprises an inverted U shaped envelope 12 havinglegs 14 and 15 one of which 14 is preferably longer than the other, withmercury pools 16 and 18 in the respective lower extremities. In order toinsure adequate ignition of the oathode 16 I employ a plurality ofsealed small tubes 19 partially filled with mercury as at 20 andprojecting upwardly into the cathode pool from the exterior. The

tubes 19 are of dielectric material such as ceramic so its windings isto set up flux lines in the leg 14 and parallel thereto, so as to inducea spiral motion to the electrons in the tube and thus increase thepassage time of the electrons from cathode to anode. The magnetic fieldis ve strong, of the order of 5000 to 5,000,000 gauss.

Current to the windings 22 is supplied in square wave form. A knowngenerator for square wave current is shown in FIGURE 3, where a mainsupply 24 of current is selectively connected to a delivery line 25 bymomentary ignition of a switch tube 26. The switch tube 26 isextinguished abruptly by applying an inverse potential from a source 28via a second tube 29. By proper timing of the ignition of the two tubes26 and 28 a wave form such as shown in FIGURE 4 is produced wherein thepulses have a duration of t; at intervals of 1 In practice t is from 10microseconds to '10 milliseconds. The time interval between burstsvaries with the nature of the load and of course with the frequency atwhich the main tube T is ignited. The sudden cut off of current at theendof each pulse of current removes the influence to cause the electronsto spiral within the tube.

Motion of the electron toward the anode -.is then changed to a directdirection by the energizing of a plurality of magnetic coils 30 axiallyradial of the legs r14, their energization occurring substantiallyimmediately after the collapse of the flux due to coils 22 so thatspiral motion energy of the electrons is transformed into direct oraxial motion to anode in a beam. Since this change of motion is anacceleration that results from what is tantamount to shortening of thetubea new dimension is added and I choose to call the stream ofelectrons that result, a fourth dimensional microbeamf,

It is to be understood that several. of the coils 30 may be evenlyspaced about the leg 14 and radial thereto so as to give theele'ctronfibeam a somewhat circular cross section. However even only.one coil 30 will tend to "pan the electrons out of their spiral orrandom lateral motion.

More than one set of radial coils 30 may be disposed about the envelopealong the axial length thereof just as more than one set of coaxialcoils are shown.

When the tube T has been conductive in the manner desired and for thedesired duration it is extinguished by a blow out potential from asource 32 applied, through a switch 31, inversely to the tube T. Theblow out is governed by a control 34 interconnected with the control 21for the ignition and the two magnetization currents. In practice, bothcontrols have a feed back monitoring line 35 connected to some part ofthe final load such as the secondary 36 of the transformer 10.

It is to be understood that the timing of the igniters, flux coils 22and 30 and blow-out are variable with the load.

In one manner of operation, the cathode is ignited and the currentbuilds up through the tube relatively slowly while the coils 22 areenergized, then the coils 22 are deenergized allowing the electrons tomove more directly to the anode, thus releasing energy stored in thetube. At a predetermined time the arc is blown out and the output issuddenly cut off as shown in FIGURE 5.

In another manner of operation the coils 22 are placed near the cathodeso as to suppress or reduce ionization of the mercury when their flux ispresent, though other ionizing conditions would be attained. Collapse ofthe (flux would let loose a burst of electrons.

In yet another mode of operation alternate energizing of the coils 22and 30 will produce condensations and rarefactions of the electrons soas to produce a sound wave of electrons superimposed on the electronstream flowing from cathode to anode. This is especially good whenseveral sets of each type of coil are provided along the length of thetube T.

These actions are possible due to the fact that heavy currents are notapplied to the coils for a long period of time. Otherwise, the coilscould not physically stand the strain.

The supply of vast quantities of fast moving electrons for short periodsof time coupled with the use of a blow out means that the rate of changein flux of the load is tremendous. This is true even when the inductanceof the load is low for any load has some inductance.

An example of a load requiring a large amount of energy momentarily isthe initiation of nuclear fusion, such as the reaction between deuteriumand tritium and the attendant reactions between the two atoms ofdeuterium. To effect fusion I contemplate the use of a toroidal tube 136containing deuterium and tritium at low pressure which serves as thesecondary of an iron core transformer 100.

While I have shown the switch tube T in U form a somewhat similar tube200 is shown in FIGURE 6 as a straight vertical tube provided with anexpansion chamber 201 and an upper anode 202 of inverted dish shape,against a similar shaped end 204. Condensing mercury tends to roll indroplets to the inner wall 205 of the tube and thence to the peripheryof the mercury pool 16. The inner zone 216 of the pool is separated fromthe peripheral zone by a vertical glass cylinder except at ports 208below the surface of the pool and the inner zone is provided with atleast one igniter 19.

The construction of the tube 200 permits a trapping of impurities andions in the cooler parts of the tube. A coolant such as water at 209 maybe used to cool the anode region of the tube. The anode 202 may be ofplatinum or partly platinum sponge to soak up mercury and give it thecharacteristics of a mercury electrode. The tube 200 is shown as havingcomparatively little height relative to its diameter but it is to beunderstood that the height may be very much greater to accommodate aplurality of sets of coils such as 22 and 30, and the expansion chamber201 may be very large so as to prevent excess build up of hot vapor inthe tubular portion when the vapor therein is suddenly subjected toextremely high temperature momentarily.

Many changes in the suggested constructions and modes of operation willbe apparent to those skilled in the art and such changes may be madewhich will not necessarily be beyond the scope of the appended claims.

The invention claimed is:

1. In combination, a source of current, a load connected thereto forenergization thereby and a mercuryarc tube switch interposedtherebetween; said switch comprising an elongate envelope having ananode and a cathode in the end portions thereof, the envelope enclosingspace providing an electron path from cathode to anode, a plurality ofinductive coils about the envelope substantially coaxial with said path,and another plurality of inductive coils about the envelope, axiallysubstantially at right angles to said path at an intermediate portionthereof, and means for supplying square wave current in a predeterminedtimed relationship to the respective pluralities of coils.

.2. The combination as claimed in claim 1, further including meansconnected across the tube switch for impressing an inverse potentialacross the tube switch for extinguishing same.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,179,601 Smith Nov. 14, 1939 2,180,815 Meier Nov. 21, 1939 2,191,595Spencer Feb. 27, 1940 2,217,186 Smith Oct. 8, 1940 2,271,666 Smith Feb.3, 1942 2,714,577 Fermi et a1. Aug. 2, 1955 2,868,991 Josephson et al.Ian. 13, 1959 2,870,076 Koch Jan. 20, 1959 OTHER REFERENCES Nucleonics,February 1958, pp. -93, 151-155.

